[rferguson]

An interesting one and I know not related to business travel. But may interest some nonetheless.

So the Operations Director for LOT Cabin Crew travels on a BA flight. Takes it upon herself to snap pictures of the crew, without their consent’ on her flight. Then posts the pictures online (face and all) mocking their personal appearance. ‘Double chin, rotten and uneven teeth’ were the two comments she made that stood out for me.

She may have a valid point about unpolished shoes and torn tights.

Personally I find this a disgrace. By all means, have an opinion. Share it if you want. But I cannot imagine any ‘Manager’ doing this in another industry. A Marks and Spencers manager going into Waitrose, taking pictures of their staff then not only posting the pictures online but shaming them as well?

The main story appeared on Facebook (check out ‘a fly guys cabin crew lounge’) and the lady concerned issued a half-apology (one that reeked of ‘I want to keep my job’) and LOT also posted to say they are investigating.

I am totally one for uniform standards. People should look clean and well turned out. But this issue I think is more a case of cyber bullying. I feel very sorry for the two crew who’s pictures she posted.

LOT Polish Airlines Investigating After Director of Cabin Crew Appears to Disparage British Airways Flight Attendants on Social Media

**Personal opinions only**

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AFlyingDutchman

[Henryp1]

I don’t know the correct definition of cyber bullying and haven’t seen the pictures, but some of the BA cabin crew do not give a good impression of the airline. Bulging out of uniforms as they are too small, filthy and scuffed shoes, hair not tidy and quite nasty nails. Travelling regularly it’s a common sight.

However, some crew are a real credit to the employer and look smart and well groomed. Perhaps it’s a management issue that crew are not checked as they report for duty, or the senior member of the crew for the flight. I don’t know as I don’t work for an airline. I always think if other airlines can have well groomed crew why can’t BA.

The comments about double chins and their teeth could be common in many countries. But anyone working with customers in any field should be neat, clean, and good dental hygiene is a must.

[cwoodward]

The way that this was posted was perhaps a little dubious.

However hopefully this will lead to a positive result as there can be no excuse for some of the grooming deficiencies mentioned above.

In this instance I believe that the strong’shape up’ message that was conveyed far outweighs any negatives re how the message was conveyed.

The BA crew and training managers very obviously are not performing and should be reprimanded for allowing the airline to be brought into public disrepute in this way.

I believe that the post definitely has relevance to business travel and I don’t understand why the poster ‘half apologised’ for it.

Living in Asia as I do I have an expectation that the cabin crew will be immaculately turned out and deliver decent service – and 99% of the time they are and do.

If the above comments are only even half true then I would find ill fitting uniforms, messy hair,unpolished shoes and laddered tights wholly unacceptable as shoddy presentation in any service industry inverabley indicates a shoddy service attitude.

In any service industry these sort of deficiencies quickley snowball and unless vigorous correction is applied then the result is sadly the sort of horrendous service often reported as being the normal service attitude delivered by BA mixed fleet crews (and perhaps also by some legacy crews).

I see no case here of any sort of ‘cyber bullying’ mor a factual report by a person qualified to have an informed opinion.

[rferguson]

I agree with all regarding grooming. My main issues were:

1. This isn’t some random Joe Public being nasty and taking pictures without permission and posting them. This is a high level MANAGER for a COMPETITOR airline…and we aren’t in asia or the middle east here. This is europe. I mean unprofessional or what? And as I said upthread – I could never envisage this happening in any other customer service facing industry.

Henry we aren’t ‘checked’ per se but there is a uniform standard and that standard should be adhered to. It regards how to wear the uniform, having neatly pressed garments and polished shoes, hair in acceptable styles, shaven or bearded (no ‘in between’). What it does NOT stipulate is that we must have perfectly straight teeth and cannot gain a few pounds over our career with the airline. It’s europe. You cannot tell someone they aren’t fit to evacuate an aircraft or serve tea or coffee because your teeth aren’t straight or you aren’t a size six. I guess we could take the ‘asian way’. Force you out of a job you like and are good at at 45?

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mkcol74, Montysaurus, openfly

[Henryp1]

[quote quote=955061]I agree with all regarding grooming. My main issues were:

1. This isn’t some random Joe Public being nasty and taking pictures without permission and posting them. This is a high level MANAGER for a COMPETITOR airline…and we aren’t in asia or the middle east here. This is europe. I mean unprofessional or what? And as I said upthread – I could never envisage this happening in any other customer service facing industry.

Henry we aren’t ‘checked’ per se but there is a uniform standard and that standard should be adhered to. It regards how to wear the uniform, having neatly pressed garments and polished shoes, hair in acceptable styles, shaven or bearded (no ‘in between’). What it does NOT stipulate is that we must have perfectly straight teeth and cannot gain a few pounds over our career with the airline. It’s europe. You cannot tell someone they aren’t fit to evacuate an aircraft or serve tea or coffee because your teeth aren’t straight or you aren’t a size six. I guess we could take the ‘asian way’. Force you out of a job you like and are good at at 45?[/quote]

I never said crew can’t gain weight, but it’s quite obvious if someone is too big to fit neatly into their work uniform they need to get a bigger one, or find it difficult to walk up and down the aisles. Nor did I pass specific comment on their teeth. The age of someone doing a job should be based on ability, with no allowances for underperforming if they are unable to work within safety standards. In some respect, if someone has poor dental hygiene would you want to interact with them as a paying customer.

One time in First, an older member of cabin crew apologised for being slower than her colleagues as she was very part time and serving took her a little bit longer and she had problems getting the tables out and replacing. Apart from that she was a lovely person and well groomed. I think everyone has their own opinion as a paying passenger, as do employees who like their job and believe they are good at it, but there will always be comparisons between members of a team as to who performs better and we all have our own specific markers we may look for.

If a member of my team was commented negatively I would be very disappointed as our customers pay significantly for our services. It’s made very clear what our standards are at recruitment which takes longer than an office based interview.

If a company cannot enforce the correct standards which employees sign up for, by all means name and shame. Very often peer pressure has greater weight than management.

[canucklad]

My take on this is that the poster shouldn’t have done so in the context of her role at LOT. By doing so, she’s brought LOT into disrepute, not BA.
The mitigating circumstance is that she’s done it on ( I presume) a relatively closed site that only FA’s / CC would be interested in.

The question I’d ask her in her position of “Director of LOT Cabin Crew “is simply this……

Would she find it acceptable for LOT passengers to pull out their devices and snap away at her employees ?

Cyber Bullying , possibly not …..Disrespectful ? A definite yes!

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Montysaurus, DerekVH, ASK1945, capetonianm, GivingupBA, AFlyingDutchman

[AFlyingDutchman]

All I can say is ‘those that live in glass houses ought not throw stones.’ I fly LOT almost every week, and can assure you that while many of the crew are excellent, there are plenty who likewise might be having a bad hair/breath/tights/weight/attitude day. Perhaps she should look into her own ‘stable’ of talent prior to judging other aircrew.

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ImissConcorde, DerekVH, cwoodward

[SimonS1]

Completely agree rferguson. I hope we never move back to an era where people are judged by their looks and weight.

It’s not as if LOT is so bloody wonderful anyway.

[capetonianm]

The only airline I fly on regularly where the crew are consistently well groomed and clean looking is, not surprisingly, Swiss, and KLM a close second. I’m not judging purely by physical appearance, some of them are pretty hefty, those healthy Dutch and Swiss girls with their dairy based diets! Most other airlines are far behind.

I’ve seen some horrors on Flybe, Air France, and Iberia. easyJet are pretty good although some of them look a bit unkempt.

Back to topic, very out of order for a LOT employee to act this.

[cwoodward]

SimonS1 wrote

‘Completely agree rferguson. I hope we never move back to an era where people are judged by their looks and weight.’

Simon,as far as I can see no one here even suggested that staff are or should be judged by their looks or weight. Neither should they be.

As I understand it sloppy grooming was the gist of the topic, that I then joined with its carry over to service levels.

When writing the post I knew it to be contentious and expected some to disagree with my view but hoped that it would stimulate a spirited and interesting exchange of views – on subject.
The correctness or not of an executive of a competitor posting I see as something of a side issue to the poor grooming of BA and some other European airlines staff that it brought into focus.

[HongKongLady]

Outrageous that anyone should take a picture of someone and then make disparaging remarks about them. What gives them the right to do this, I do hope that they are severely reprimanded by both their superiors and those close to them. When did bullying on social media become an acceptable sport.

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openfly

[rferguson]

I believe the manager that took and posted these photos online was sacked from LOT today.

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Swissdiver, openfly, AFlyingDutchman, Jacob

[mkcol74]

[quote quote=955346]I believe the manager that took and posted these photos online was sacked from LOT today.[/quote]

Indeed it seems she has been.

[openfly]

Hey…good result! But she will probably get a job as a direct entry CSM with BA!! 😀👨‍✈️

[SimonS1]

The outcome on this was inevitable. She really must be a shilling short of the pound to behave like that. What a plank.

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AFlyingDutchman

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